As the World Turns
by Mai Kusakabe
Summary: After Maes' death, Gracia lives and the world goes on.
1. Paying Respects

This is a series of short stories focused on Gracia's life after the end of the manga (though this first one is set during the manga, as I felt it was necessary). It features other characters, of course, mainly Elicia and Roy. All the stories are connected, but I decided to keep them in one-shot format instead of making a long-fic out of the story.

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 **Paying Respects**

The funeral is a small ceremony. There are none of the usual honors that would be paid a fallen soldier, certainly nothing like last time. Traitors don't deserve honors, and very few people want to be associated with them. It doesn't matter how fishy the story is, not many people question official statements on these matters.

But Gracia Hughes does.

She had her doubts about the accusation on Maria Ross from the beginning (she remembers Maes talking about her, he _liked_ her, and he was the best judge of character Gracia ever met), and after her conversation with Edward and Alphonse Elric last night Gracia is certain that Maria Ross did not kill her husband.

Gracia's hand tingles as she watches the coffin being lowered into the hole. It has been tingling for the last two hours, ever since she left Central Command. She went there early this morning to talk to Roy, to ask _why_ ("why did you kill that girl?" "Why did things have to end like this?"). Roy's reply was vague, something about his job, duty, and all those things that Gracia knows are nonsense, because she knows Roy Mustang well enough to realize he wouldn't kill someone out of duty when he could just as easily incapacitate them. No, if Maria Ross is dead it's because Roy _wanted_ her dead, and the only reason Roy would want her dead is because of Maes.

Maes would never want anyone to take revenge for him, much less Roy, and Gracia said as much right after slapping Roy hard enough for her hand to hurt afterwards.

It still throbs, and Gracia rubs at it while she looks at the desolate parents. She still isn't sure why she felt the need to come (maybe to let them know someone believes in their daughter? As if that means anything now), but the fact remains that she left Elicia with their neighbors (because there is no way she can bring her to a funeral again), put on black clothes she had to wear barely a month ago, and came here today.

And so, Gracia Hughes waits for the other mourners to depart before she approaches Maria Ross' parents, her hand throbbing and her mind still blank for words.


	2. The Ghost

**The Ghost**

The hospital is teeming with injured soldiers, many of which are wandering the hallways with bandaged extremities. By the looks of it, there are so many injured people that those with the least dangerous wounds don't have assigned rooms. The hospital is certainly busy enough that it took Gracia half an hour just to find someone who could direct her to the right room.

Elicia clings to her hand, looking around the hallways with an apprehensive expression that Gracia doesn't like to see on her face. Gracia nearly left her with a neighbor, but finally decided that it would be best for everybody involved if Elicia was around, if only to ensure no heated words are exchanged. A hospital is no place to air one's grievances.

Finally, they reach the door Gracia was directed to. There are two soldiers standing guard outside, a man whom Gracia vaguely recognizes from the many pictures Maes used to show her from his visits to East City and a woman.

Gracia's steps falter until she comes to a halt. Elicia speaks, confused, but Gracia is too busy staring at the ghost standing in front of her to answer. Hers is a face that Gracia memorized months ago, a death she couldn't help but feel guilty about.

Maria Ross stands guard to the left of the door, but she blinks in surprise for a moment when her eyes fall on Gracia and Elicia. Then she smiles and takes a step forward.

"Mrs. Hughes?" she greets, "I've heard a lot about you. I'm—"

"Maria Ross," Gracia says, unable to stay silent. "I know. I attended your funeral."

Maria looks down, clearly abashed and uncomfortable, and Gracia has the impulse to reach forward and place a hand on Maria's shoulder.

"Have you visited your family yet?" she asks softly, and she isn't surprised when Maria shakes her head. Gracia can see the shame on her face.

But she knows that anyone would be too happy to have one of their loved ones back to be angry at them.

She very resolutely doesn't think about Maes.


	3. Maes' Best Friend

**Maes' Best Friend**

Gracia can feel her heart stuck in her throat when she opens the door to the hospital room. The last time she saw Roy, she hit him for killing a woman who is very clearly alive in the hallway and told him to stay away from her family. Now he is in a bad enough condition to warrant a private room in an overflowing hospital right after the most chaotic day anyone in Central can remember, and Gracia feels completely inadequate with her empty hands. Because she only came here out of obligation, for Maes, and didn't expect to be here more than a few minutes. She isn't even sure how to look Roy in the eyes now.

"Uncle Roy!" Elicia exclaims, delighted, and rushes inside the room. Gracia isn't even sure how she remembers Roy. Elicia is very young, and Gracia removed all the pictures where he appears after Maria's funeral, exchanging them for others because she couldn't bear to see the face of such a murderer…

"Elicia?" Roy asks in surprise, raising his head before glancing down… but not looking at Elicia. He reaches out a tentative hand, as if testing the air, and Gracia is suddenly hit by a horrible realization.

 _He can't see_.

"Roy?" Gracia asks in a faint voice.

Roy withdraws his hand as if burned. Elicia is trying to climb on the bed, but she is too short to manage it.

"Gracia," Roy greets her in a pleasant, if neutral, voice. Gracia knows of that voice, Maes used to call it Roy's politician voice, and she is once again reminded of her own words.

" _Stay away from my family."_

Nodding resolutely to herself, Gracia closes the door and walks to the bed. As she approaches, she takes in Roy's appearance. He's wearing a thin hospital gown that makes him look thin, noticeably thinner than the last time Gracia saw him without his bulky uniform, and there are large dark circles under his eyes. His hands, now folded on his lap, are bandaged, and the exact location of the bandages gives Gracia a chilling idea of the wounds they're covering.

Gracia reaches the bed and bends down to pick Elicia up. Roy looks genuinely surprised when she places Elicia on the bed next to him. He turns to look at Gracia, but his unseeing eyes don't meet Gracia's.

Gracia wants to cry.

"I saw Maria Ross outside," she says instead.

"I heard she wasn't injured during the fight," Roy replies softly.

Before Gracia can say anything (apologize, ask _what happened_ ), Elicia asks why Roy is in the hospital. Roy tells her he got into a fight with a mean guy before distracting her by asking if she's done anything fun lately, and Gracia sits down on the visitor's chair to watch her daughter crawl on Maes' best friend's lap to tell him all about her latest discovery at the park.

This is the first time in months that Gracia feels like something is as it should be.


	4. Flesh

**Flesh**

This time it's easier for Gracia to find the room she is looking for. Falman's directions are incredibly accurate, and in no time she is standing before Alphonse Elric's door. She has been warned of Alphonse's poor state and decided that it will be best if Elicia doesn't see him now, so she has left Elicia with Roy. She believes that Roy will appreciate the distraction, because it's not as if he can read to pass the time the way Maes used to tell her that Roy did whenever he ended up in the infirmary back at the Academy.

Gracia shakes her head, takes a deep breath, reminds herself that the doctors are the ones who best know how to take care of Alphonse's health no matter how emaciated he looks, and knocks on the door.

"What?" a familiar voice snaps as the door opens, and a moment later Edward is blinking up at her. "Mrs. Hughes?"

Gracia smiles.

"Hello, Ed. I heard I could find you and your brother here."

Edward blinks again before he seems to gain control over himself. He takes a step back and gestures for her to come in with his right hand, his _flesh_ right hand.

Before Gracia can comment, she catches sight of the figure on the bed.

Alphonse is truly little more than a skeleton, his too-pale skin stretching over his far too visible bones, but he is _flesh and blood and bones_ and his smile is truly beautiful when he beams up at her.

"Mrs. Hughes!" he exclaims, delighted, and Gracia's smile grows. "What a surprise!"

Alphonse's smile grows impossibly wide when Gracia says that she would love to have them over for dinner as soon as he is discharged from the hospital.


	5. It's Time to Rest

**It's Time to Rest**

Gracia doesn't ask how Roy recovers his sight or how his hands heal after a man who introduces himself as Doctor Marcoh visits him on the third day after the battle that threw the country upside down. She will hear about it somewhere safer than a hospital room. What she does is insist that Roy stays with her and Elicia once he is discharged later that day. Roy tries to refuse, but his entire team sides with Gracia. Riza Hawkeye is terrifying even from a hospital bed with her neck bandaged (Gracia hasn't asked about that yet, either).

By the time Roy steps into the house, Gracia has returned the picture of his and Maes' graduation from the Academy to the mantelpiece, and the one in which he holds baby Elicia is back at the hallway with the collection of pictures of Elicia that Maes gathered there over the years.

Roy leaves his bag at the guest room as instructed, insists that he doesn't need rest now that he is healed (Gracia still doesn't ask, certain that he isn't ready to talk about it) and barely picks at his dinner. He doesn't even seem to notice that he is doing it, and Gracia wonders how long it has been since he ate a full, healthy meal.

The first morning, Gracia finds Roy reading on the couch in the living room when she wakes up, and the same happens on the second morning. The circles under his eyes haven't diminished, and Gracia is certain that he is barely sleeping, if at all.

Deciding that enough is enough, Gracia chooses to go straight for the big guns. She tells Elicia that Uncle Roy has nightmares, and he could use company just like Elicia does when she has bad dreams of her own. Not even a stubborn bastard like Roy Mustang can resist a determined and well meaning three year old, and the resigned look Roy gives Gracia as he follows Elicia out of the living room that night tells her as much.

The next morning Gracia doesn't find Roy reading, and the dark circles seem to have diminished somewhat at breakfast.


	6. Guests

**Guests**

When Elicia learns that they will have guests for dinner tonight, she insists on helping to get everything ready. Gracia doesn't trust her anywhere near the kitchen appliances or the food, of course, but she is more than willing to sacrifice a bowl of pie dough to make Elicia happy.

She directs Roy to set the table, reminding him of one of Maes' favorite sayings ("Roy doesn't need his gloves to burn water if he's in the kitchen") when Roy offers to help with dinner.

The doorbell rings and Elicia abandons her demolished bowl of dough to dash out of the kitchen and open the door. Roy follows her before Gracia can put down the wooden spoon.

Alphonse has been looking better every time Gracia has visited him, and it is a true pleasure to watch him walk into the living room under his own power, even if he needs crutches to do so. Edward hovers behind him, but he doesn't try to interfere with Alphonse's slow advance.

Gracia smiles warmly and tells everybody to take a seat, announcing the food will be out shortly. She watches as Elicia climbs on a chair next to Alphonse before walking back into the kitchen. Roy follows her, pretending that he has missed the fact Gracia was telling him to sit down as well, and asks if he can do anything to help.

Gracia rolls her eyes (in times like this it's easy to see how Maes and Roy were such good friends), but she points at one of the many pots -containing soup in this case- and asks him to bring it out while Gracia picks up the meatballs+.

There are four other pots waiting aside from a large apple pie, and Gracia is fully aware that there will be leftovers for a week when they're done, but that doesn't matter. This is Alphonse's first meal outside of the hospital, and Gracia will make sure it is as perfect as possible.


	7. The Picture

As of an hour ago or so, it's May 20th where I live, which means I'm (sadly) a year older officially. As I usually do this day, I'm posting all the updates I have ready :) I hope you'll review, because they're the best birthday presents I can receive :D

This chapter is actually one of the first scenes I came up with when I planned this series. Hope you like it :)

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 **The Picture**

The meal passes as smoothly as Gracia hoped it would. Alphonse tries everything on the table. He is careful about how much he eats, mindful of the doctors' orders, but his eyes shine with happiness and childish delight the entire time, and he keeps constantly complimenting Gracia on the food. Elicia is happy to help Alphonse decide what to try next, offering input on her favorite foods, while Edward and Roy mostly watch the scene unfold. It's hilarious, because Edward is trying to pretend he isn't as emotional over this moment as Alphonse is and Roy has put a calm mask on, as though he hasn't been waiting for years to see Alphonse retrieve his body. Somehow, despite staying mostly silent, they manage to end up bickering more than once, and watching then trying to keep their bickering child-friendly has Gracia snickering into her napkin every time.

Then, once they have finished dessert, Gracia waves off the offers to help her clean up and orders everybody to go sit on the couch.

She takes a deep breath.

She has been thinking about this ever since that horrible day at the hospital. She knows, has known it for months, that at some point she will have to start taking pictures again. It would be an insult to Maes' memory if she avoided them because they remind her so much of him.

So Gracia opens the drawer that holds Maes' camera and takes it out.

She walks to the living room, where Roy's eyes widen in realization when he sees what she is holding, and directs everybody to settle in the right position. Alphonse sits on the middle of the couch, with Edward and Roy flanking him, and Elicia is sprawled sideways across their laps, one elbow digging in what looks to be a painful way into Roy's thigh and her feet resting on Edward's stomach.

Gracia can't think of a better picture to be the first new one in the house since Maes' death.


End file.
